Herzog’s visit "a terrible cruelty" |
For Palestinian Australians who have lost entire families in Gaza, the decision to welcome Israel’s president to Australia is not diplomatic neutrality but an act of profound cruelty. As deaths continue despite a ceasefire, questions of grief, justice and political accountability can no longer be avoided.
Australian citizens Ayman Qwaider and Shamikh Badra regard the Prime Minister’s invitation to President Herzog as ‘a terrible cruelty.’
Ayman explains, “For two and a half years, the genocide in Gaza has marked my everyday with loss. I stopped counting the dead long ago. Every branch of my family has lost someone. My four cousins have been killed. Does it matter? Are we allowed to mourn? I remember my loving sister Alaa, a mother and teacher killed alongside her three children, her husband and all members of his family. Even in death they were accorded no dignity. My father was unable to bury his daughter. Her grave, alongside 300 others was bulldozed in the Tuffah neighborhood.”
Shamikh says, “The cruelty experienced by my parents is lifelong. My father was orphaned in the 1948 Nakba. Last year I tried to arrange humanitarian visas for them to........